WO01/61514 discloses a process monitoring system for lithography lasers. A number of lithograph lasers at a plant is connected via terminal servers to a central control server. The central control server is connected to the internet and may exchange laser specific information with a server of the lithograph laser manufacturer. The information may prompt the manufacturer to exchange one or more laser modules in the lithograph lasers of the plant.
US2009222427 discloses a tracking system for life limited parts. It is especially directed to monitoring location history of life limited parts that are used in vehicles such as aeroplanes. Apart from tracking information, owner history, remaining life records may be stored in a database.
Gas purifiers for purifying gas, for example carrier gas that is used in a gas chromatograph, a liquid gas chromatograph, a spectrometer or a mass-spectrometer, are known from EP-0 606 960 and EP-1 479 430. No central monitoring systems are available for gas purifiers of such type. The gas purifiers are consumables that are mounted in an equipment assembly, for example, a gas chromatograph equipment assembly, a liquid chromatograph equipment assembly, a spectrometer equipment assembly or a mass-spectrometer equipment assembly. The equipment assembly includes a gas system with a gas source and gas channel that includes gas pipes and that connects the gas source with the gas chromatograph, the liquid chromatograph, the spectrometer or the mass spectrometer. The gas source may be a gas bottle containing carrier gas with certain purity or a gas generator or a liquid gas tank. Generally, a quick change gas purifier base is part of the gas channel. A gas purifier can be mounted by hand on the gas purifier base via a quick change coupling. The known gas purifiers include a purifier material housing in which purifier material is stored and via which the gas flows when the gas purifier is mounted on the base. In order to make the user aware of a limited remaining life time of the gas purifier, generally, the purifier material housing is transparent and at a downstream end is partly filled with indicator material that discolours when the purifier material is saturated and not anymore able to purify the gas flowing through the purifier material. Discolouring indicator material serves as a signal for the end user that the gas purifier should be replaced in order to prevent contamination of the downstream gas channel and apparatus. The purifier material housing is preferably manufactured from glass in order to prevent contamination of the gas flowing through the purifier material housing. In view of the high pressure that may prevail in the purifier material housing, the known purifiers having a purifier material housing that is manufactured from glass are encased by a transparent guard that is made of plastic.